good afternoon and thank you all for being here today um as you know we had a press conference on tuesday and we didn't announce one on thursday but i decided to call this press conference to present my recommendations for the american rescue plan funding you may hear me refer to it as arp but that's what i'm talking about that louisiana should receive in may we're expecting it somewhere around the 10th of may not just the funding but the final rules that pertain to the ways that can be spent and cannot be spent and so forth i am very happily joined today by lieutenant governor billy nungesser also with us we have the chair of the house transportation committee vincent pierre representative pierre it's good to have you and also representative barbara carpenter who's the chair of the house labor committee poincare parish president major tebow is here uh renee laparollery with the department of transportation and development jill kidder president of louisiana travel association and bobby burus who is the cfo of elmer chocolate which i will point out is in ponchatoula louisiana tangipahoa parish although we are still obviously waiting on certain guidance regarding the spending of these dollars i'm required to certify to the secretary of the treasury that the funds will be used for the purposes specified in the act and in accordance with the rules and the guidance that get promulgated by the secretary of the treasury and i've signed that certification we've sent that a letter to secretary yellen because i want to make sure that as soon as those funds are available that they get sent to the state of louisiana i'm excited now to share with you the proposals that we are making that will help louisiana to recover from the kovind 19 pandemic and restore the progress and you know that we've been making before 2020. i will tell you we're already well on our way and just a quick reminder before the pandemic at the beginning of 2020. louisiana had one of its lowest rates of unemployment in history um and then almost overnight we lost 281 thousand jobs by december of 2020 we had recaptured about 200 000 of those jobs uh pre-pandemic so this is again at the start of 2020. uh louisiana's i'm sorry louisiana's gdp had been growing we were the largest ever in terms of the size of our economy with the gdp over a quarter trillion dollars on an annual basis about 260 billion dollars we also had the fourth fastest growing economy in the country at our covin 19 bottom our economy was generating only 86 percent of the pre-pandemic economic output today we're back to more than 94 percent of pre-covid levels and steadily growing so there's no doubt that louisiana is on the mend but we still need some help in order to make a full recovery and that really is the whole purpose for the american rescue plan and so i want to thank president biden i want to thank congress for making the funds available for the country and particularly to louisiana i have requested in the certification that i sent secretary yellen no less than 1.6 billion dollars which is approximately half of the amount allocated to louisiana the other half will be allocated to us over the next two years and we're not sure exactly how that's going to be apportioned yet first and foremost with respect to putting these dollars to use i am proposing that 230 million dollars be allocated for the purpose of reimbursing the federal government for the loans that we've had to make uh fun in order for the louisiana workforce commission to continue to pay unemployment benefits to louisiana citizens an additional 400 million dollars will be used to replenish the unemployment insurance trust fund so that's 630 million dollars for unemployment purposes as i've said before this has to be a priority in order to restore the solvency of the ui trust fund and to protect employers all over the state every employer who pays into the ui trust fund will otherwise at some point in the very near future have a tax increase i don't believe it's ever a good thing to have a tax increase when you're trying to grow your economy come out of a pandemic so i think this is very important to put this in perspective before the pandemic we had one of the strongest ui trust funds in the country in march of last year before we started paying out pandemic related benefits the trust fund had over a billion dollars in it and then if you flash fast forward by october of 2020 we had to start borrowing from the federal government in order to to pay claims the ui trust fund has hit zero and we now have 184 million dollars in loans that we have to pay back and it's projected that that amount will increase to 230 million dollars which is why i put 230 million dollars towards repaying that loan obviously our goal is to get back to the pre-pandemic level of the ui trust fund but specifically using arp funds it's the 630 million dollars that i just pointed out to you and over two years it's going to be very important that we get to at least 750 million dollars because any amount below that when the september rec recognizes that fund is having a balance below 750 million dollars then there will be a tax increase and so that's why we're going to do this over two years and it will be necessary again to suspend the increase that would otherwise occur in 2021 we can do that and without having to worry about any adverse impact on the fund because we know we have more art funds next year moving beyond the unemployment insurance trust fund i am next proposing 400 million dollars for infrastructure projects transportation is the foundation for so much of our economy but it's also about safety it's about quality of life it is how we get economic investment job creation in our state how we move commerce just recently we announced 216 million dollars in road and infrastructure projects using funds from the 2020 coronavirus response and relief supplemental appropriations act and since 2016 my administration has invested more than 3.9 billion dollars into infrastructure projects our goal for these additional funds would include addressing long-standing projects that have been on the books for years meaning our priority program creating and sustaining jobs across the state and chipping away at our 14 billion infrastructure backlog that has continued to grow while funding has lagged you know the covid 19 pandemic not only reduced state revenue including the transportation trust fund but it also caused financial hardships for inland and deep water ports and because of the contributions that our ports make to our economy and in fact there is not a big a better return on any investment the state makes than what we put in the ports for that reason i propose and allocate 50 million dollars to porch to help in their recovery dr shawn wilson is unable to be with us today to address these priorities but the multimodal commissioner rene laparoli will speak in just a moment about the value of this 50 million dollar investment which is designed to replace revenue that was lost by the ports during the pandemic but they've not been eligible for previous stimulus funds like the cares act and it would be our recommendation that we do this in a manner similar to the way we administered the cares act last year for local government so the division of administration would set up a program the ports come in and show their lost revenue and then they would draw against the 50 million dollars in a in a very similar fashion i'm also recommending that 300 million dollars be directed to sewage and water projects with 100 million dollars each going to the louisiana department of health drinking water revolving loan fund the deq clean water state revolving loan fund and the ocd the office of community development public facilities program and though we call these revolving loan funds once the projects are done and all the commitments are made the loan becomes a grant and a working group has already been created earlier this week with representatives of the three agencies that i just mentioned but also with the house and the senate and they've been charged with developing specific recommendations guidelines and rules for the distribution of these dollars and a goal is to leverage the state arp dollars for local dollars to make sure that we actually tackle even more of our infrastructure related to water and sewer over 50 percent of louisiana's water systems have infrastructure that is over 50 years old they are expensive to repair and modernize but they are absolutely essential to a healthy community out of 1287 water systems in louisiana 260 of them are under formal enforcement that's 20 percent of all of our water systems what that means is that there are violations regarding water quality standards infrastructure problems operations and or maintenance issues our drinking water infrastructure was uh graded at a d-minus and the latest ase report and about 400 of our systems were affected by the recent record winter storm as you probably know president biden and congress put an emphasis on water and sewage projects when they pass the american rescue plan and i wholeheartedly agree with them this is something we've been working on since our very first days in office and we certainly need to take advantage of the opportunity that we have to make significant headway on this issue and while we're talking primarily about the state's arp funding it is noteworthy that there are two billion dollars going to local government as well and one of the specified purposes for which that funding can be spent and invested is water and sewer also next i'm recommending that 125 million dollars be set aside for local convention and visitor bureaus as well as other tourism venues that were not able to take advantage of other federal grant programs to assist them with their lost revenues additionally i believe it's important that 20 million dollars be provided to the department of cultural recreation and tourism to aggressively market the state to make up for lost tourism dollars this is incredibly important to jump starting our economy and getting more customers into our businesses tourism economics estimates estimates i should say that louisiana lost approximately five billion dollars in tourism spending over the past year we estimate that mardi gras 2021 alone would have generated more than one billion dollars in economic impact in may and june of 2020 we lost an estimated 750 million dollars in economic impact from festivals sporting events and conventions statewide but we are turning a new page today and the lieutenant governor is going to tell you more about how we are going to get tourism back up and running and i will take questions at the end when i come back up to the podium but i'll be followed now by lieutenant governor billy nungesser he will be followed by parish president major tebow and then jill kidder renee laparoli and bobby burus in that order so billy thank you governor uh let me first thank you governor and your team and our tourism team around louisiana for the incredible work and support we've had over the last four years prior to covert prior to covert we had four record-breaking years in tourism in 2019 51.3 million visitors came to louisiana they left behind 1.9 billion in taxes that's a little over eleven hundred dollars per louisiana family that you and i didn't have to pay now as we open our doors back up to the world we have a plan we call it the sunshine plant because we see light at the end of the tunnel and it's a bright light it's a four part plan first is a staycation which many louisianans have been doing safely wearing their masks through part of the shutdown visiting parts of louisiana that they hadn't seen before and i thanked them for that it kept many businesses afloat during these tough times the second part is a regional trips that's the drive market if you've seen the commercials stay three nights to the state park and get the fourth night free wildly successful across louisiana and has driven us to our best year ever in state parks by that fourth night free and it's been working the next phase is going to be a little tougher it's the long-haul trips while 87 of americans plan a leisure trip in the next three to six months uh they're not going far from home they're going to be dry traveling shorter and closer to home and the last part of that is the international market we're not ready to begin to market that yet but when they're ready to travel we'll be ready for them here in louisiana we know it's important to support and promote every part of this state every fair and festival to make sure the restaurant shops hotels and attractions not only get back open but start making money quickly because you can only stay open and lose money for so long this weekend we're kicking off actually today we're kicking off the crawfish fest in saint bernard so i'm asking everyone to get out and have a great weekend here in louisiana take a staycation after all it's yours governor thank you again for your support and your team and our tourism team around the state uh these reckon breaking numbers will be back soon thank you uh good evening um first of all on behalf of the citizens i represent in poincary parish i want to thank you governor for your recommendations i want to speak particularly about the sewer and water grant program you often hear that across united states we have an infrastructure crisis and i can tell you in louisiana at least where i come from and where i represent in poincapey you learn pretty quickly that sewer and water is where that infrastructure crisis lies the governor was correct many of these systems were built 40 and 50 years ago many of these systems were built with federal funds with the right intentions they were built in many cases in low income areas and the the low rates that were set were really not sustainable what this grant program does is it is it allows us the opportunity uh for parishes across the state to apply for this program so that we can upgrade our sewer system so that we can replace broken lines so that we can replace broken pumps that i can promise you have been limping along for some time this allows you know for us to create a safer place for our folks to live um and and it's a much needed boost you know water systems are in in a rural parish like i represent and talking to other parish presidents and and police german across louisiana our water systems are our greatest challenge same things we need new towers they're very expensive new lines very expensive the 300 million will go a long way and at least gives us an opportunity to start to to do something about that critical infrastructure of sewer and water so i thank you for the recommendations we as a parish look forward to trying to apply for some of those funds and and restore our systems to where they should be for the people uh who live in this great state thank you and um thank you for the for the program hello everybody i'm jill kidder i'm with the louisiana travel association louisiana association of convention and visitors bureaus and i will also want to add our thank you to governor edwards and his team we are so honored to be here representing our members who are those convention and visitors bureaus attractions hotels restaurants main streets and parks all across our state and i don't have to tell you that these small businesses in these organizations have been devastated by covet over these this last year but please allow me to also acknowledge our industry's passionate and tireless leader lieutenant governor nungesser who has led us through this crisis so well and of course all of you for being here today and including our industry in this important conversation it's an honor to stand here as we discuss how to bring back louisiana's jobs and our important economy we also want to thank you for recognizing the importance of providing dollars to tourism in convention marketing for creating products and services that will attract our visitors and for improving our facilities that also bring visitors to our destinations these funds will help us bring back jobs and local and state tax revenues that the lieutenant governor talked about timing for this support is critical at this point and as we enter into what we all know will be the most competitive tourism and travel marketplace in history yes um there is a lot of pent-up demand and we all want to travel again but every other destination in the southeast the country and also the world will be vying for our visitors and our convention attendees so it is important that this funding comes now providing funding to this industry at this time will help us ensure that all louisiana destinations are top of mind to these visitors and this is a great start so what we also want to ask all of our fellow louisianans is you'll allow me governor we need their help in three different ways one is to invite your friends and family as the lieutenant governor said to come visit and experience your louisiana we also know that all of our our folks in louisiana are members of associations organizations or businesses and we'd like for you to ask them to hold their next available conference or convention in louisiana meetings are back and we are so glad that they are be a visitor number three is do that staycation that the lieutenant governor asked you about be the visitor in your own state and in closing on behalf of the louisiana travel association the louisiana association of convention and visitors bureaus and the entire statewide travel industry we pledge to be good stewards of this money and we will all look forward to working with our governor our lieutenant governor our legislators and all of our elected leaders back in our destinations to bring back louisiana so thank you governor my name is bobby burus with elmer candy first of all i hope everyone got to celebrate the easter season with goldbrick egg and heavenly hash i must say i'm always a welcome visitor as long as i bring candy governor i'd like to thank you for the proposal to fund the unemployment insurance fund you know that's almost a billion dollars that would be an additional tax on the businesses of louisiana and as we try to bring our businesses back and bring the economy back that's one challenge that we don't have to face there are many others but but that one helps tremendously in letting us do what we know best which is our own business you know we know how to make candy that's what we want to concentrate on we don't want to have to fool with the the rules and regulations on the unemployment trust fund so appreciate that that funding and i must say that having been in louisiana since 1855 and in tangipahoa parish since 1970 you know we've been here a long time we think with with this these funds that will help our business grow and we hope to be in louisiana for another 150 years so thank you governor thank you thank you governor good afternoon although the american rescue plan act did not contain specific covet 19 relief funds for seaports there is language in the state and local funding sections of the act that expressly permits the transfer of these relief funds by governors who know the value of ports so for that we thank you through the leadership of the ports association of louisiana the case was made to me and secretary wilson to help our ports recover from loss of revenue due to the pandemic which has restricted the ability of public port authorities to invest in capital projects and governor edwards i i see a pattern your willingness to immediately support the ports in a way that will sustain them and keep them whole your commitment of the state's share toward the dredging of the mississippi river to 50 feet from the mouth of the river to the greater baton rouge port and other critical dredging projects realizing the importance of of us being strategic on how we plan our investments to enhance competitively on the global market advance competitively the state's ports are the lifeline for much of the world handling 60 percent of the nation's grain and carrying 25 percent of u.s waterborne commerce and and so many of our ports have that critical intermodal connectivity with trucking routes rail and airports this pattern makes clear our commitment to business and industry which will in turn meet us with private investments allowing louisiana to build upon the innovation and skill which people of the state have contributed nationally and internationally to the maritime industry for generations governor it seems that everywhere i go you have already been um this week was morgan city where captain les ralph and max in their regards i'll be in fushon tomorrow in lake providence saint joseph and vidalia next week so i want to thank the ports association for for working with us and on behalf of the ports association inland and coastal shallow and deep draft our federal partners the maritime industry and all related industry thank you very much thank all of you for being here today and for speaking and i hope you noticed that even though 3.2 billion sounds like and in fact is a lot of money if we wanted to have transformative positive change in our state you can't do everything and you can't cut this pie into 100 pieces and think that you're going to make a significant improvement anywhere and so with this 1.6 billion dollars you see three main investment areas first the unemployment insurance trust fund second infrastructure including roads bridges water sewer ports and then thirdly tourism it is my belief that these are the three most important things that we can do right now and that this plan is the best plan for using these funds for their intended purpose and to have a transformative positive impact for the state of louisiana i would also tell you what is obviously the case and that is we will receive more art funds next year and many of these investments will be carried over into a second year as well especially the unemployment insurance trust fund and infrastructure and then i've got a commitment with the lieutenant governor to sit down with him after this first injection fund of tourism and see where we are and whether additional funds for tourism will be necessary next year before i take questions i do have an update that's important from the department of health on covid 19 variants in louisiana unfortunately as of today there are two confirmed cases of the p1 or the brazil variant in our state this is the first time we have confirmed cases of the brazil variant one case was identified in region one which is the greater new orleans area the second was identified in region five which is southwest louisiana centered around lake charles the cases are not travel related and what that means is it is almost certain that there are other individuals in louisiana with covid19 caused by these same variants and now there are multiple variants of concern circulating in louisiana b117 which is the uk variant b1 427-429 the california variant and now the p1 brazil variant i would also point out that the two individuals had not been vaccinated i also learned today of a recent breakout of 13 cases in louisiana from one funeral and i say that because a lot of people think that that we have put this pandemic behind us that there's not a threat out there anymore that simply is not the case and all of these cases further underscore the need for everyone 16 and older get vaccinated as soon as possible there are three safe and effective vaccines available they are free they are easy to access we have over 1500 locations operating in louisiana today where people can get their vaccine if you have questions or need to make an appointment you can call one eight five five four five three zero seven seven four or visit covidvacine.la.gov for more information the hotline is open from eight to eight on monday through saturday and noon to eight on sundays quick update nearly 1.5 million louisianans have initiated their vaccines over 1 million have completed their vaccine series we've administered nearly two and a half million total vaccine doses so we are making progress but we are not where we need to be the vaccines are our best defense against the pandemic and the best chance to put it behind us as soon as possible but that requires people getting vaccine and the sooner the better because the race between the vaccines and the variants are real and this is what we and other places around the country have been going through for some time and so remember wearing a mask and social distancing are still recommended by the cdc i do want to close on some different news think a sign of progress for quite some time our state has been dealing with four i'm sorry with multiple emergencies from covid to recover from hurricanes and winter storms you may remember we had three hurricanes make landfall last year as a result of all of these disasters many people were displaced from their homes at the peak of disasters there were 18 213 evacuees in louisiana and in texas and almost 13 000 of these were in 58 non-congregant shelters in louisiana what that means is hotels more than 450 department of children and family services staff along with supporting agencies and partners managed the operations for a record eight months which included moving thousands of hurricane lower evacuees to safety and securing their non-congregate shelter space virtually overnight over the past several months staff have worked with the remaining evacuees to plan their recovery and to find sustainable housing solutions and as of today i can tell you that we no longer have anyone in any of the non-congregate shelters that were set up they we've had people in shelters now since about the 26th of august until today this has never been done before and i will tell you we have some very dedicated professional caring public servants at the department of children family services and all the other agencies in private sector nonprofit partners who came together to make sure that these people were taken care of so with that i'm going to take a few questions if you have them yes sir this if it's a part of infrastructure i know you recently created a new office um and there's a bill to put 180 million dollars in our funding into broadband yeah so so you're right we have 180 million dollars in a separate pot of funds that will go uh to broadband expanding broadband particularly in rural unserved areas we have tremendous need there and we also have an infrastructure package that has taken shape in washington and no matter whose package you look at whether it's house senate republican or democrat broadband is a common component and so we are optimistic that a package will pass at some point of some size that will have considerable funding for additional broadband efforts if that doesn't happen then i would expect that broadband could be a draw on next year's art money but the 180 million dollars that we have is more than enough for the first year of this program in order to establish the program and make really good headway in providing broadband high-speed internet access that is that is um affordable uh across much of rural louisiana uh so so we're staging this in and but i think you got it exactly right when you talked about the 180 million that's currently available for us yes ma'am going to sewer and water do you think that's going to be enough to address the state's problems and if not no it's not but when we when we leverage it for a match for example from the locals that have art funding of their own that can be spent for for water and sewer then you get more projects done but also you have another year coming uh water and sewer and it's it's also water and sewer included in the same federal infrastructure package that i was just referring to as well so we have more opportunities there but the answer to your question is no because we we literally have i think it's about 900 million dollars worth of water and sewer projects that we don't get into the capital construction bill house bill 2 the capital outlay bill because we just simply don't have the capacity but by by doing what we currently have in capital outlay through the capital alley process bringing this 300 million dollars to bear this year additional funding uh next year and on top of that whatever comes out of the federal infrastructure bill for water sewer we have a once it's not even once in a generation this this is i don't know once in a hundred year opportunity to make significant advances in water and sewer which is a tremendous problem all across the state of louisiana i know municipalities and localities have to apply but is there going to be like a prioritization like is it going to be based on how big your problem is or first come first yeah well first of all um i can't answer the question yet because we have individuals from deq which has the revolving loan one for sewer ldh which has a revolving loan fund for water and the office of community development individuals from those agencies are meeting with legislators from the house and the senate to to come up with a plan because there are several things that we have to do we have to leverage for local funding but we also have to make sure that we're consolidating small water systems that are close together when that makes the best sense for the long-term sustainability of that system and so there's an awful lot of work left to be done but we know this is what we want to do and we started the work and it didn't make sense for us to wait until after all the rules uh come out and so i'm not able to address those questions but that is the very work of that body that i just mentioned and they've already started yes sir you said previously that you've been meeting with uh president cortez and uh speaker scheck snyder are you how comfortable confident are you that this plan will align with their priorities for how to spend this money or where do you think there could be some disagreements well i'm that that it completely aligns uh with their priorities uh you know if if we can agree on the big things and obviously there are there's room for compromise there there always is but one of the things that i think we should all try to guard against is having everybody's pet project pet initiative funded from these dollars because then you're not going to have the transformative impact anywhere which is why we were uh i think very disciplined in the way that we did this because we're focusing on really three areas and trying that are extremely important to our state uh not just right now i think the the the ui trust fund is critically important now because of the pandemic and and coming out of the pandemic we shouldn't put a tax increase on all these businesses but but the other opportunities we have uh you know these problems have been developing for decades roads and bridges is a 14 billion dollar backlog you know we've got all these aging water systems that are failing and quite frankly they're not the resources out there absent funding opportunities like this to make these sort of advances and so i would hope that that this meets with their approval we have had lots of conversations i can tell you there's nothing that i mentioned today that will surprise them at all but i don't want to speak for them either yes ma'am how um can you give more details about how the money for the visitors and convention bureaus will be divided so what i'd like you to think back to is when we had the cares act funding for local government and we created a program administered by the division of administration uh and they created the rules and and the local government came in and showed what their revenue losses were um and coveted related expenditures i should say not not revenue losses but they were able uh to then get funded uh for those losses once they were certified well that wasn't available to the convention and visitor bureaus and in this round of funding revenue loss is specifically reimbursable through these funds and so we're going to do this on a revenue loss basis and they're going to come to the division of administration show what their revenue losses were and they will get their their losses or or their per capita share of the 125 million dollars which is there for the convention and visitor bureaus but it's also there for uh tourism venues and and that will happen in that fashion too uh with respect to those venues and then the other part of this will operate in the same fashion will be the ports so they they come to the division of administration uh and bring their information related to loss of revenue and then they will get their revenue funded uh loss of revenue i should say funded through this means or at least up to their per capita share of the 50 million dollars so it's going to work much like the karzak local funding from last year yes sir we'll do it what do you make of the call from the legislative black caucus that uh representative groffalo stepped down from heading the education committee do you think he's fit to serve as chair of the education committee well you know i think it is obvious and incontrovertible that he made some very unfortunate statements that have caused a significant number of his colleagues to lose confidence in him and it's my understanding that those colleagues span both sides of the aisle they have had conversations with representative garafallo and with the speaker and obviously it's the speaker's decision if he's going to make any changes um i believe that the incident is egregious enough to warrant his removal but i'm also the first to tell you i'm not the one that makes that decision so look thank you all very much representative carpenter representative fear appreciate you you being here and look forward to your work on labor and transportation to make these things happen and make sure that we move louisiana forward and out of this pandemic and recover all of the momentum that we had just a little over a year ago so thank you all very much god bless you